Skip changelog entry in defined branches

[mtrezza]

Issue

Consider this scenario:

1. In pre-release branch alpha a commit is merged for a feature with commit message feat: a.
2. Before a beta or stable release is created, a bug is discovered in the feature.
3. In alpha branch, a fix is merged with commit message fix: a not working.
4. The pre-release branch is merged into the beta and later stable release branches.

The created changelogs for beta and stable release contain both entries, for feat and fix. However, outside of the alpha branch, the fix is irrelevant in the changelogs.

A fix in the beta changelog means something has been fixed relative to the previous beta release. Same goes for the stable release changelog. But that is actually not the case. So not only is the fix changelog entry incorrect, it is also confusing for readers as nothing has been fixed relative to the previous release.

Solution

Add a flag to the commit message to skip the entry into the changelog of a specific branch.

In the above example the fix commit message could look like this:

fix: a not working [skip-changelog-beta] [skip-changelog-stable]

Additionally, an inverse flag could be introduced to specific the branches for which the commit should produce a changelog entry:

fix: a not working [only-changelog-alpha]